Canadian Banks Amp Up Efforts to Court Newcomers

Canadian banks are beefing up efforts to attract newcomers by offering such incentives as multilingual service and lower fees.

Immigrants are one of the fastest growing demographics in Canada, while population growth within the country is relatively stagnant. Some projections estimate that by 2036, over 70 percent of population growth will be from immigration alone. Increasingly, Canada’s largest financial institution are recognizing and attempting to tap into this potential market.

“It’s really somewhat of a clear-cut business case,” says Royal Bank’s director of multicultural markets Paul Sy. “The forecasts are quite clear that Canada is an aging population. Moving forward, newcomers are really the key source of growth and will be fuelling the … growth of the Canadian economy for years to come.”

One of the newest strategies to attract newcomers is to offer unsecured credit cards, which allows those with little or no credit history in Canada to obtain credit cards with higher limits. Some advocates warn that this could potentially do more harm than good if newcomers are not familiar with credit systems and run up their debt without being able to pay.

Still, say financial experts, most newcomers are highly educated people who would make desirable clients at these institutions. Most are motivated to succeed, and likely to be loyal to companies which give them a chance to do just that. The fact that banks are now sending recruitment specialists abroad to further tap into this market shows just how valuable these newcomers are.